A total of 107 people, including 84 students, have been diagnosed with Paratyphoid A fever in the Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Hechi City in the Guangxi Autonomous Region. Currently, 80 individuals are hospitalized, including 50 students under hospital quarantine. Most of the cases come from 2 middle schools and 1 high school in the county and although the incidence of new cases have begun to decline, investigators have not identified the source of the outbreak and the disease is not yet under complete control. The first case was identified in a 7 year old female student on September 20th but most of the cases occurred between October 17th and 24th, during which 46 cases were identified. Paratyphoid A is caused by the bacterium Salmonella paratyphi A and is most commonly transmitted via the fecal-oral route through contaminated water or food. The disease bears similar symptoms to typhoid fever, including sustained fever, abdominal pain and enlargement of the liver or spleen, but is caused by a different bacterium and is generally more benign.
